Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating the Local Construction of Identity: Sociophonetic Variation in Smoky Mountain African American Women's Speech

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Under the direction of Dr. William Kretzschmar, Ms. Rebecca Childs will conduct sociophonetic research in Texana, North Carolina for her doctoral dissertation. The project examines the social meaning of phonetic detail among two African American women's communities of practice, investigation specifically ways in which these African American women use subtle phonetic variation in the construction of their identity. Over the years, studies of African American English have been the major focus of American women's language. This project will look specifically at African American women's language in a regional context (Appalachia) and examine the ways that local social practices can affect women's language. Using an integration of sociolinguistic and acoustic phonetic methodologies this study will account for the phonetic variables such as coarticulation and duration and social variables particular to each community of practice that have an effect of vocalic production.This project has broad significance, first it would allow linguists to compare the phonetic characteristics of different regional and social groups of African American women and gain a sense of the complexity and heterogeneity that can be found within the speech of this group. It will also provide one of the few quantitative and phonetic studies of African American women's language. Additionally, it will build on the variations research tradition by analyzing this variety not only with regard to traditional variables such as race, gender, region, and age, but also with these variables as they manifest in social practice. Further, this research would add to our knowledge base about Smoky Mountain English, since it comprises the bulk of the very few studies that have examined the dialect of African Americans living in this region of the United States.